Upcoming and Recent Events | By Patti Butcheck, on May 18th, 2015% Click here to read the May-June 2015 Newsletter In the newsletter you will find the following articles: Click here to read the May-June 2015 Freethought Society Newsletter. We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible! If the newsletter inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number, email address, and mailing address. Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations. We want supporters to stay informed at all times. To keep updated about events, meetings and issues, please sign up to participate in the FS Discussion List. Check for upcoming events at the FS Meet Up page. Like FS on Facebook! Follow FS on Twitter. The Freethought Society News Editorial Staff By FS Editor, on November 13th, 2014% The 2014 Philadelphia Tree of Knowledge Book This Event for a Secular Holiday Season  Please plan to celebrate the 2014 winter season in a festive freethought fashion by attending a Tree of Knowledge decorating special event! The Tree of Knowledge will be placed in the lobby of the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia (EHSP) at 11:00 AM on Sunday, December 7, 2014. The Freethought Society (FS) is proud to join with EHSP for this celebration of openness, education, and freedom of conscience. EHSP is located at 1906 South Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. The event is free and open to the public. Everyone is welcome!
The Tree of Knowledge will be decorated around noon following an EHSP program featuring an address by Hugh Taft-Morales entitled, “Great Awakenings.” Taft-Morales will explore the First Great Awakening that brought an angry god to America at the beginning of the 18th century, the Second Great Awakening fueling public social reform early in the 19th century, and the 20th century wave of progressivism that woke government up to its responsibility for ordinary citizens. Taft-Morales will conclude by advocating for a contemporary “great awakening” of secular government and a culture of humanism and freethought. The Tree of Knowledge became a winter symbol for the nontheist community in 2007, originally placed on the lawn of the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Despite appeals for openness and acceptance, Chester County Commissioners have prevented the nontheist community’s symbol from being included in any the traditional winter holiday display since 2010. EHSP welcomed The Tree of Knowledge display with excitement and full support for the diversity it represents. Margaret Downey, President of FS said, “This is the fourth year that we’ve celebrated the winter season with a Tree of Knowledge at the Ethical Humanist Society. It started as a symbol of inclusion and sharing in this region but The Tree of Knowledge has since become a tradition, not just in Southeastern Pennsylvania, but throughout the world.” Visitors are encouraged to bring two color copies of the front of a favorite book to the December 7th event. A laminator and other craft materials will be available for those color copies to be made into an ornament. The ornament can be placed on the Ethical Society’s Tree of Knowledge or used for a home display. Downey and FS board members Jennifer Taylor and Patti Butcheck will be making the ornaments at 1:00 PM in the upstairs meeting room. Enjoy the Taft-Morales EHSP presentation on Sunday, December 7, 2014 at 11:00 AM, and stay for The Tree of Knowledge decorating party and noon! Both events are free and open to the public. To view photos of previous Tree of Knowledge displays, see: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xaadwcswcszxvij/AAA2JyLkjtUEpQJq6lV72DZta?dl=0 For more information, contact: Margaret Downey, FS President Phone: 610.793.2737 Email: Margaret@FtSociety.org Hugh Taft-Morales, EHSP Leader Phone: 215.735.3456 Email: LeaderHugh@phillyethics.org By FS Editor, on November 13th, 2014% The Necessity of Secularism; Especially During the Winter Holiday Season  Ron Lindsay, noted author, President and CEO of the Center for Inquiry (CFI), will be hosted by the Freethought Society (FS) and the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia (EHSP) at 7 PM on Monday, December 8, 2014. Lindsay’s presentation on The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can’t Tell Us What To Do is based on his book of the same name. This event takes place at the EHSP building, located at 1906 South Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is a free and open to the public. Everyone is welcome!
Lindsay’s presentation is based on his recently published second book, which has garnered extreme praise by many notable reviewers. “For some,” Lindsay states in his book, “secularism has become the ultimate scare word. …What’s interesting and ironic about this hysteria over secularism is that secularism, properly understood, is the best protection religious believers have, particularly in a society they no longer control. Secularism protects freedom of conscience, including freedom of religion; it doesn’t threaten it. One reason some may have such dread of secularism is that they mistakenly equate secularism with atheism… But secularism and atheism are distinct views and don’t even belong in the same category. “The fact that I have been both a believer and a nonbeliever also gives me a heightened awareness of the novel, challenging situation in which the United States and many other countries now find themselves. For the first time in human history, we have substantial numbers of nonbelievers living side-by-side with believers. Moreover, this is a situation that is likely to persist for some time. The number of nonbelievers is going to increase in developed countries, but religion is not going to disappear in a few years, if ever.” Lindsay is by training and experience the quixotic combination of lawyer and philosopher. He has a PhD in philosophy from Georgetown University specializing in bioethics, and a JD from the University of Virginia. He is the author of the essay “Euthanasia” in the International Encyclopedia of Ethics, as well as articles in many other prestigious publications, and of the book Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas. FS President Margaret Downey stated, “We are honored to have Dr. Lindsay give his presentation here in Philadelphia because this is the city where an unprecedented secular government began. The Constitution includes a very important statement. Article VI explicitly states that ‘no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.’” Hugh Taft-Morales, the EHSP Leader added, “The ‘no religious test’ Constitutional tenet was affirmed many times in court cases, including the United States Supreme Court in 1961 in its unanimous decision in Torcaso v Watkins.” After the presentation, at 8:30 PM, visitors are invited to attend a birthday party for Dr. Lindsay in the upstairs EHSP community room. Birthday cake and beverages (wine, coffee, tea, and water) will be served. Donations for the party are appreciated. For more information, contact the following event organizers: Margaret Downey, Freethought Society President Phone: 610.793.2737 Email: Margaret@FtSociety.org Hugh Taft-Morales, EHSP Leader Phone: 215.735.3456 Email: LeaderHugh@phillyethics.org By FS Editor, on September 25th, 2014% CANCELLED: FS is sorry to announce the cancellation of this Jason Torpy event. We will attempt to reschedule asap and let you know!———————————-FS is proud to present Jason Torpy, President of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF). MAAF is a national non-profit that is developing a strong community, providing education about the numbers and needs of nontheists in the military and advocacy for nontheists in the US military services. Torpy will join FS at the October 7 Sunshine Meeting in West Chester to speak for the inclusion of the Tree of Knowledge.  This free and open-to-the-public speech takes place on Monday, October 6, 2014 at 7:00 PM at the Ludington Library (5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania).
Torpy’s speech, entitled “The Pathway to Equal Rights for Atheists in Foxholes,” will highlight historical precedents and current events related to religious privilege in the military, the humanist community, and the role of the chaplaincy in fostering change. Topics will include humanist alternatives to church at the military academies and at Air Force basic training, humanist religious preference, and the Navy’s humanist chaplain candidate. MAAF members currently populate more than 20 countries, all 50 states, and over 100 military installations and ships. One can truly say that not only are there atheists in foxholes, they are in foxholes all over the world. Individual members can find support and strength by coming together with local organizations. On-post groups as well as the other communities are listed on the MAAF website and provide ways for members to meet individually or at local atheist, freethought, and humanist gatherings. RSVP via our Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Freethought-Society-Meetup/events/206804302/ or on the FS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/347831125373712/ By FS Editor, on June 30th, 2014% The Freethought Society (FS) is very pleased to present noted author, blogger, feminist, and secular and human rights activist Sikivu Hutchinson on Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 7:00 PM at the Ludington Library (5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania). Hutchinson is a dynamic speaker and the author of Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Value Wars and Imagining Transit: Race, Gender,  and Transportation Politics in Los Angeles. Her latest book, Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels has been a huge success. Hutchinson will speak on “Feminism, Freethought, and the 99%” at the event, which is free and open to the public. Much of Hutchinson’s work focuses on the cultural and social history of African American secular humanist thought and its role in black liberation struggle. “As part of the most religious ethnic group in the nation,” Hutchinson states, “African American nonbelievers are a tiny minority in a community which has borne the brunt of the economic downturn. While white atheist and humanist organizations go to battle over church/state separation and creationism in schools, black nonbelievers face a racial and gender divide precipitated by rollbacks on affirmative action, voting rights, affordable housing, reproductive rights, education, criminal justice, wages and job opportunities. “Similar to the race/class schisms within feminism,” Hutchinson notes, “when progressive black atheists look to atheist and humanist organizations for solidarity on social justice there is a staggering disconnect. In a nation where whites and people of color are still separate and decidedly unequal, culturally relevant humanism challenges colorblind myths of meritocracy.” Hutchinson is a senior intergroup specialist for the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission. She received a Ph.D. from New York University and has taught women’s studies, cultural studies, urban studies, and education at UCLA, the California Institute of the Arts, and Western Washington University. She is a contributing editor for The Feminist Wire and was named 2013’s “Secular Woman of the Year.” In 2010, she founded Black Skeptics Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing outreach, advocacy and education for nonbelievers of color and their allies. She is also the founder and project director of the Women’s Leadership Project, a feminist, humanist high school mentoring program based in South L.A. In addition to her three nonfiction books, Hutchinson is currently working on a novel based on the 1978 Jonestown massacre, where the 918 dead were overwhelmingly people of color. Hutchinson’s presentation is free and open to the public and begins at 7 PM on July 24 in the main level large meeting room of Ludington Library. The library is located at 5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr. For more information, contact: Tom Melchiorre
Freethought Society Board Member and Event Host
Email: Publish@TomMelchiorre.com
Phone: (610) 960-2558 | |
